Slice of Life: OLW 5th Tuesday Check-In

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, Melanie, and Lanny

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

I'm always amazed by how quickly a year marches forward.  It's almost June and then in one quick month, 2017 will be halfway over.  I set up a schedule to check-in with my OLW in each month with five Tuesdays.  I missed January's check-in due to grandson Jack's early arrival.  So here I am with my first check-in for the 5th Tuesday in May.   

Here's what I wrote about my OLW, nourish, for Spiritual Journey First Thursday in January.  The words in red indicate my progress so far this year.  

There are so many ways that I want to experience being nourished in this new year:

Nourished by immersing myself in the good word of God - Making some progress.

Nourished by extending love to family and friends - Love doing this! And especially loving on my two grandsons.  Jack and Teddy met each other in April when Teddy and family came for a visit.  

Nourished by choosing to exercise - Knee problems have kept me from this, but I finally seem to be on the mend.  I'm getting a bit more exercise as I watch grandson Jack.

Nourished by making healthy food choices - Alway seeking to make progress, close to reaching a short-term weight loss goal that has almost turned into a long-term goal.  
Nourished by observing beauty in the world (blogger refuses to make those letters black) - I've excelled at this, especially with spring blossoms everywhere.  Our first rose of the season just bloomed!  The red rhodies have retired for this year, but the purples, the pinks, the whites still delight my heart!

Nourished by embracing quiet time - Still trying to do a better job at this.

Nourished by sharing my writing - I made it through another year of writing daily for March SOL.   I also wrote every day during April for Poetry Month (a first for me).  

Nourished by reading the words of favorite writers - So much joy with this one, recently finished My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman and Henning Koch, always working on my WTR (want to read) stacks, finally read A Single Shard with Books, Brownies, and Beyond, AND I read The Poet's Dog aloud to the members of book club.  What a treat to share this wonderful book with them!

Nourished by stilling the demands that crowd my heart ... Ever trying to make progress on this one.  Loving a book that I recently received from the library World Enough & Time:  On Creativity and Slowing Down by Christian McEwan.  Here's a favorite quote from the author in the book's introduction:  "I wanted to explore the space in which small, almost invisible habits might have the chance to flourish, seeing them as nourishment, both in terms of 'making' and as antidote to our usual frantic rush."  Not sure where I heard about this book, but it's perfect for my desire to still the demands so I can do each of the following (bolded words are OLWs from previous years):

listen to the stillness, 

savor the present moment, 

stretch to grow, and always 

abide in His love to  

nourish my soul and reach out in love. 

I'm grateful for this opportunity to reflect on my progress so far and happy that there's still plenty of time and room to grow with this year's One Little Word!